Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1887-09-17
ACo0MAC e. H. Va SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER Il, 1887


turc, and III one case, after he left, the whole
household was converted by the reading Of
that passage OIL the window pane. The
women of Shunen furnished little room
over the wall for Elisha. and all the ages
lave heard the glorious consequences.
On cold, stormy winter night
my father entertained Trucman Osborne, the
evangelist, and through all eternity will
thank Cod that Trucman Osborne stopped OF
our house. How many Of ollr guests have
brought to us coincidence and sympathy and
lIelpl There is lcgcnd told Of st. Sebeld
that in his Christian rounds he used to stop
for entertainment ut the house OF poor cart
wright. Coming there one duy, lie found the
cartwright and his family freezing for the
luck of uny fuel St. Sebald ordered tue man
to go out and break the iccles from the side
of the house uud blng them in, and the icicles
were brought into the house and thrown on
the heurfh, and they began to blaze inlnedl-
ately, and the freezing family gathered
around and wero warmed by them. That
was legend; but how often have our
guests come i'll to gather up the cold,
freezing sorrows of our. life, kindling them
into illumination. aud .siiIIntl saldS sgqod
cheer! WHO opens his house to Christian
hospitality, turns those who arc strangers Into
friends Years will 60 by, and there will be
great changes i'll you, and there will be great
changes In them. Some day you will be sit
ting in loneliness, watching bereavement,
and you will get letter in strange hand
writing, and you will look at the postoflice
ulark, and say: "Wby, don't know any
body living ; II tl,ut c!ty;;" and you will
brcnk tue envelope, and there you will
read the story of thanks for your Christian
generosity long years before, and how thoy
hove heard afar Off Of your trouble. And the
letter will be SO full of kindly "reminiscences
and Christian coincidence, it will BIO plaster
large enough to cover up all tho deep gashes
of your soul. When we take people into our
houses as Christian guests, we take tbem into
our sympathies forever. In bort, Holland,
a soldier with sword ut bis side stopped at
house, desiring lodging and shelter. The
woman OF tho house at first refused ad-
mttance, saying that the men OF the
house were not at homo; bat when
he showed his credentials that he
had been honorably discharged from
the army, he was admitted and tarried dur
ing the night In the night time there wns e
knocking nu the front door, and two ruffians
broke in to despoil that household. No sooner
had they come over the door sill than the
armed guest, who had primed his piece and
charged it with slugs, met them. and, telling
the woman to stand back, am happy to say,
dropped the two assnulting desperadoes dead
at his feet Well, now there are no bandits
prowling around to destroy our houses; but
how often It is that we find those that have
been our guests become our defenders. We
gave them shelter first, and then afterward
in The great conflicts of life they fought for
our reputation; they fought for our prop
erty; they foughr for our soul.
Another reward that comes from Christian
hospitality Is in the assurance that we shall
have hospitality shown to US md to ours. In
the upturnings of this life, who knows i'll what
city or what land we may be thrown, and
how much we mny need Ill open doora There
may come no such crisis to IFS, hut our chill
dren may be thrown into some such strait. He
who is in Christian manner hospitable has
free pass through all Chrstendom. It may be
that you will have been dead fifty years be-
fore any such stress shall come upon one OF
your descendants; but do you not suppose
that God can remember fifty yearsf and the
knuckle of the grnndchild will be heard
against the door Of some stranger, and that
door will open; and it will be talked over in
heaven, and it will be said: THAT mans
grandfather, Fifty years ago, gave shelter to
stranger, and now strangers door Is open
for grandson
Among the Greeks, after entertaining and
being entertained, they take piece of lead
and cut it In two, and the host takes ono bali
of the piece of lead and the guest takes the
other halt as they part. These two pieces of
lead are banded down from generation TO gen.
GRAFTON, and from family TO family; and after
while perhaps one of bhe families in want or
in trouble go out with this one piece OF lead
and find the other family with the CORE
spending piece of lead, and no sooner is the
tally completed than the old hospitality Is
aroused and eternal friendship pledged. So
the memory Of Christian hospitality will 90
down from generation to generation, and
from family to family, and the tally will
never lie lost, neither in this world nor the
world to come.
Mark this: The day will come when we will
be turned ont OF doors, without any e1cep-
tion-bnrefoot, barehead, no water in the
cantcen, no bread in the haversack, and we
will go In TINT way into the future world.
And I wonder il eternal Inequalities will
open before US, and il we will be received
into everlasting habitationsi Francis Fresco-
bald was n rich Italian, and lie was very nler-
ciful and very hospitablc One day an Eng
lishman by the nnme of Thomas Cromwell
appeared ct his door asking for shelter and
aims, which were cheerfully rendered. Fres-
cobald afterward lost all his property, became
very poor and wandered up into England;
end one day he saw procession passing,
and lol 1t was the Lord Chancellor Of Eng
land; and 10! the Lord Chancellor of England
was Thomas Cromwell, the very man whom
he had once befrionded down in Italy The
Lord Chancellor, ut the first glance OF Fresco-
bald, recognized him, and tiismounted from
his carriage, throw his arms around him, and
embraced him, pail his debts, invited him to
his house, and said: aHere are ten pieces of
money to pay for the bread you gave ME,
and here are ten pieces OF money to provide
for The horse you loaned me, and here are
four bags, in each Of which are four
hundred ducats. Take them and
be WE'LL" So 1t will be at last with US. If
we entertain Christ In the person of his dis
ciples in this world, which we pass up into the
next country we will meet Christ in q regal
procession, and he will pour oil the wealth of
Heaven into our lap and open before US ever
lasting Inequalities. And 0, how tame are
the richest entertainments we can giTe on
earth compared with the regal munifcence
which Christ will display before our souls in
Heavenl was reading the account which
Thomas Fuller gives of the enter
tainnlent provided by George Neville.
Another other things, for that banquet
they had 800 quarters Of wheat, lo4 tuns Of
wine, So oxen, 5000 capons, 200 cranes, 200
kids. 4, 900 pigeons, 4,ooOrabbits, 2o4 bitterns,
200 pheasants, SGD partridges, 400 plover, 100
quail, 100 curlews. / ,5O0hot pasties, 1000 cold
venison pasties, 1900 custartls, the earl Of War
wick acting as steward, and servitors 1000
so-.4 80, P,,t than rornpafa it